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| Cliveden Reach on the River Thames |
Off on the last gloriously sunny Bank Holiday Sunday (memories!)
to Taplow and the wonderland which is Cliveden House set on wondrous chalk
bluffs on a magical stretch of the River Thames, enhanced and planted to give a
Fairytale quality to the place. One of the great country houses of
Buckinghamshire, and indeed, of all England. Cliveden stands on a high cliff
above the River Thames, and the gardens provide wonderful views down the river.
In Chapter 12 of Three Men in a Boat (1889), Jerome K.
Jerome describes Cliveden Reach as:
"unbroken loveliness this is, perhaps, the sweetest
stretch of all the river…"
The description still holds today and Cliveden would be
glorious and imposing for its position alone but there is so much more to it
than that.
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| Cliveden, Garden Front - View looking north from the Ring in the Parterre showing
Terrace Pavilion and Clock Tower to the left with Lower Terrace and Borghese Balustrade below |
A residence built originally in 1664 for the second Duke of
Buckingham, it was also home to the Duke of Orkney, the second-in command at
the Battle of Blenheim in 1704, and to Frederick Prince of Wales. During his
tenure the opera “Alfred” Thomas Arne was first performed here in 1740 which
contains the song originating from the poem "Rule, Britannia" by James
Thomson.” The opera was designed to advance the German Hanoverian Frederick’s
claim to the throne by setting him in a long line of English Kingship from King
Alfred. The house took on its current
Italianate form in 1850 during the ownership of the Duke of Sutherland, and was
bought and embellished by its most notable owner – Waldorf Astor - in 1893.
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| Entrance Front |
As
home of Nancy Astor, the house was the meeting place of the Cliveden set of the
1920s and 1930s—a group of political intellectuals, known for thinking Herr. Hitler
was a reasonable chappie we should do business with. Later, during the 1960s,
it became the setting for key events of the notorious Profumo Affair. Indeed in
hindsight the Profumo affair was notable for the abject hypocrisy of the
British Establishment and the hysterical hounding of Dr Stephen Ward to his
death. Jack Profumo and his wonderful wife the actress Valerie Hobson by
contrast are a wonderful example of how to cope with adversity and their
subsequent lives make them the equivalent of British Secular Saints. During the 1970s, it was occupied by Stanford
University of California, who used it as an overseas campus. Now it belongs to
the National Trust.
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| Duke's Garden |
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| French Dining Room where the Astors hosted their famous society dinners |
Cliveden has been visited by virtually every British monarch since Lord Orkney hosted George I here. Throughout the years, Cliveden’s owners have been councillors to the crown and friends of the royal family -a prince has even called Cliveden 'home'.
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| Tortoise Fountain |
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| Parterre |
The house was originally built in 1670 for the 2nd Duke of
Buckingham by William Winde. Although the Duke's intention was to use Cliveden
as a "hunting box" he later housed his mistress Anna, Countess of
Shrewsbury there. A contemporary account of Buckingham's antics with Anna is
recounted by Samuel Pepys in his diary of the period. It was badly damaged by
fire in 1795, and was left to moulder for 30 years. It was eventually rebuilt,
but another fire in 1849 destroyed much of the original structure. Sir Charles
Barry designed a new Italianate building in 1850 for the Duke and Duchess of
Sutherland. Barry's three story central block curves outward to join 18th
century wings designed by Thomas Archer. The interior was altered in the 1870s
from Barry's design, and the clock tower and stable block added.
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| Octagonal Temple |
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| Clock Tower |
The house is surrounded by 375 acres of superb landscape
gardens, including a Rose Garden designed by noted English garden expert Sir
Geoffrey Jellicoe. The gardens also feature the Canadian War Memorial Garden,
the Ilex Grove, Amphitheatre, River Walk and the Yew Tree Walk. The grounds are
also notable for their delightful statuary, with the most prominent feature
being the sculpted "Fountain of Love", which stands at the end of a
broad entry avenue at the main approach to the house. Parts of the gardens date
back to the 16th century, though most are of more recent vintage, and much of
the statuary was added by the Astors.
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Thomas Waldo Story's Fountain of Love inscribed
"Waldo
Story, Roma 1897"
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| Pagoda in the Water Garden |
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| Staircase ceiling |
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| Hall |
Following Lord Orkney’s death, the estate was let to
Frederick, Prince of Wales in 1737 for £600 a year. The Prince brought his
young family to Cliveden to escape his deteriorating relationship with his
parents. At Cliveden, Prince Frederick
organised theatrical and musical performances in the amphitheatre, most
famously hosting the first performance of ‘Rule Britannia’ in 1740. A cricket
injury sustained while playing on the Parterre proved fatal in 1751 and his
estranged father, George II, outlived him.
Queen Victoria travelled up the River Thames from Windsor to
spend time with her friend, Harriet Duchess of Sutherland. On her accession in
1837, the Queen appointed Harriet Mistress of the Robes and the pair became
good friends. In 1861, they both lost their husbands and for many weeks the
Duchess was the Queen's sole companion.
In 1893 the estate was purchased by William Waldorf Astor,
and the interior was remodelled yet again, to set off Astor's fine furniture
and tapestries. In the early 20th century, King Edward VII was eager to meet
the newly married Nancy Astor. On one occasion during a visit to Cliveden,
Edward VII asked to play bridge but Nancy declined, famously saying ‘I am
afraid I can’t tell a King from a Knave’ – much to the King’s amusement. Nancy
Astor, nee Nancy Langhorne from Virginia, was one of the most remarkable women
of the 20th Century. When her husband Waldorf Astor went
"upstairs" to the House of Lords, Nancy Astor decided to stand in
Plymouth Sutton in his place. She won the election in November 1919, beating
her main rival, Liberal Isaac Foot - the father of Michael Foot who of course
went on to lead the Labour Party. Thus, Lady Astor became the first women to
take her seat in the House of Commons. Incidentally, her maiden speech on the
evils of excessive drinking could probably be dusted off and re-used today!
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| There's nothing . . . absolutely nothing . . . half so much worth doing as simply messing around in boats. - Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows (River Rat to Mole) This boat is "Suzy Ann" over 100 years old and doyenne of the Cliveden Flotilla. |
However it is a common mistake to refer to her as the "First
female member of parliament." This distinction actually belongs to
Constance Gore-Booth, The Countess Markiewicz, who in the December 1918 general
election, was elected for the constituency of Dublin St Patrick's as one of 73
Sinn Fein MPs. This made her the first woman elected to the British House of
Commons.
She did not take her seat and along with the other Sinn Fein
TDs formed the first Dail Eireann. She was also the first woman in Europe to
hold a cabinet position (Minister of Labour of the Irish Republic, 1919–1922). The
Countess Markiewicz who was the first female MP was also a suffragette and like
Nancy Astor a member of the aristocracy but there are few other comparisons
except that they both led extraordinary lives. Nancy Astor was the first women
to take her seat in the House of Commons.
Astor maintained that Nazism would solve the problems
associated with Communism and the Jews. She was viewed by some as Adolf
Hitler's woman in Britain, and some went so far as to claim that she had
hypnotic powers. Despite her anti-Catholicism, Lady Astor was friends with
Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr., and the correspondence between them is reportedly
filled with anti-Semitic language. As Edward J. Renehan, Jr. notes:
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| Nancy Astor portrayed by John Singer Sargent |
As fiercely anti-Communist as they were anti-Semitic,
Kennedy and Astor looked upon Adolf Hitler as a welcome solution to both of
these "world problems" (Nancy's phrase)..... Kennedy replied that he
expected the "Jew media" in the United States to become a problem,
that "Jewish pundits in New York and Los Angeles" were already making
noises contrived to "set a match to the fuse of the world."
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| The Beatles at Cliveden |
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| The swimming pool |
Between the two world wars Cliveden was at the centre of
political and social activity, and the 2nd Viscount Astor and Lady Astor made
Cliveden a popular gathering place for influential people who became known as
"the Cliveden set". This group
of well to do types were at the epicentre of the appeasers who saw themselves
as anti-communist and were anti-Semitic like the Nazis. In 1942 Viscount Astor gave Cliveden to the
National Trust.
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| Nancy Astor MP with child evacuees from her Plymouth Constituency during WWII |
As a child, Elizabeth II accompanied her parents George VI
and Queen Elizabeth (the Queen Mother) on a visit in 1938 and visited the
Canadian Red Cross Hospital at Cliveden during the Second World War. As Queen,
she was one of 450 guests who attended a lavish ball hosted by Bill Astor in
1957.
The hospital at Cliveden is the reason for the Canadian War
Cemetery in the grounds to the memory of
the patients who died there. Overlooking 42 inscribed stones to the dead of The
Great War Sir Bertram MacKennal's figure represents Canada with the head
reputedly modelled by Lady Astor
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission description is:
“From December 1914 to September 1917, the hospital at
nearby Taplow was the Duchess of Connaught Canadian Red Cross Hospital, and
then until September 1919, No. 15 Canadian General Hospital. Most of the 40
First World War burials, the majority of them Canadian, are associated with the
hospital. The cemetery also contains two Second World War graves and two
American War Graves from the First World War.
No. of Identified Casualties: 45”
Nancy and Waldorf Astor formed a remarkable partnership. Not
only were they both American expatriates with similar temperaments, but they
were of the same age, being born on the same day, May 19, 1879. They also both
became Christian Scientists so whilst Cliveden boasted a fine cellar it was for
guests as the Astors did not drink alcohol. However after World War II and the notoriety
Nancy had attracted they grew apart. Nancy blamed her party and her husband for
causing her retirement in 1945. The Tories felt that she had become a liability
in the final years of World War II, and her husband told her that if she ran
for office again the family would not support her. She conceded, but with
irritation and anger, according to contemporary reports however the truth was
her racial views and strong anti-Catholicism did not chime with the times. She
and Waldorf Astor largely led separate lives but she returned to nurse him in
his final illness and he died in 1952. Afterwards Nancy led an increasingly
lonely and isolated life living largely with her daughter in Lincolnshire until
her death in 1964. Her ashes are interred in the Octagon Temple at Cliveden.
Their son Bill Astor, the Third Viscount Astor, was
traumatised by the notoriety of the Profumo Affair and the suicide of his close
friend Stephen Ward and rarely lived at Cliveden after 1963. He died in 1966 at
the age of 58 in Nassau, Bahamas. During the 1963 Profumo Affair Astor was
accused of having an affair with Mandy Rice-Davies. In response to being told
during one of the trials arising out of the scandal that Astor had denied
having an affair with her, Rice-Davies famously replied "He would,
wouldn't he?"
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| The War Cemetery and Memorial |
Today the swimming pool where John Profumo first saw
Christine Keeler swimming naked is part of the achingly expensive Spa complex
at the hotel and “Spring Cottage” which Stephen Ward leased from Bill Astor for
£1.00 a year has been lovingly restored and is rented as part of the hotel for
c. £2,500 a night!
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| Spring Cottage |
There is much to see on a visit to Cliveden, a day will seem
frustratingly short. The famous parterre was laid out in 1855 by John Fleming
and his colourful planting schemes set a precedent for gardens the world over.
The triangular shaped beds have been beautifully restored with seasonal bedding
displays using Fleming's original design and complete the breathtaking views
from the house.
The sculpture collection, amassed largely by the Sutherland
and Astor families, is evident throughout the garden and includes Thomas Waldo
Story's impressive Fountain of Love at the end of the Grand Avenue. Other
features not to miss are the octagonal temple, perched on the cliff edge and built
by Giacomo Leoni in 1735, the pavilion built to commemorate the battle of
Blenheim, and an amphitheatre where the first recital of "Rule
Britannia" was played.
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| The Orangery |
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| The Duke of Sutherland statue seen from the house |
The house itself is now run as a hotel, and only three rooms
are open to the public but is well worth a visit on timed tickets but the
gardens are maintained by the National Trust. There is also a full programme of
events at Cliveden, including concerts, open-air theatre, and children’s
theatre held throughout the season
The National Trust website is here;
http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/cliveden/
Address:
Cliveden Road, Taplow,
Maidenhead, SL6 0JA
Telephone: 01628 605069
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